Item 15 - Letter from Marius Bewley to James Smith

4 single sheets

[St Paul Seminary, St Paul, Minnesota.]—Thanks him for his advice. Promises to do nothing rash, but finds it hard to be away from literature so much. Agrees with Smith’s criticisms of 'Scrutiny' and Leavis. ‘Leavis has addressed the world so long on the question “Brother, are you saved (literarily)?” that he’s crippled his own achievement, and filled all his undergraduates with an illusory sense of pre-election.’ Criticises Miss [M. C.] Bradbrook’s analysis of Marvell’s ‘To His Coy Mistress’, and discusses Eliot’s last poem ['East Coker'], a Picasso exhibition, and Maritain’s 'Degrees of Knowledge'. Has learnt from 'Scrutiny' that Smith is working on 'Macbeth', and encourages him to continue with his writing. Is thinking of trying to get a fellowship at Harvard, seeing that John Berryman, who writes ‘impossibly bad poetry’, has got one. [Mortimer] Adler lectured at the seminary yesterday on ‘the intellectual and moral virtues in their relation to a liberal education’. ‘He’s unmistakably the “Bleistien [sic] with a cigar” type of Jew who takes St Thomas apart and puts him together again like a mechanic.’ Defends his interest in St John of the Cross.